The present invention relates to a device for connection between a roller shaft support and slideways for laterally holding a shade body in a closure or sun protection installation. The invention also relates to a mechanism for manoeuvring a closure or sun protection installation comprising such a connection device.
Closure installation is understood to mean doors, gates, blinds and equivalent equipment.
EP-A-0 671 537 discloses a universal support for laterally guiding a roller blind, this support comprising interchangeable lateral rods or tabs intended to be inserted in a slideway for guiding a roller blind, being fixed in the lower part of a lateral face of a box. These interchangeable rods or tabs make it possible efficiently to position the slideways with respect to the box of the blind. However, it has appeared from experience that, when an installation comprising such a box and such slideways is positioned, it may happen that the aforementioned rods or tabs become detached from the bracket and drop to the floor, which means that the installer must stop positioning them in order to pick up the dropped element and replace it, such manipulations most often obliging the installer to get down from a ladder.
It is a more particular object of the present invention to overcome the problems set forth hereinabove by proposing a connection device which virtually eliminates the risks of a connecting tab being unhooked with respect to its environment when the closure installation is being positioned and used.
To that end, the invention relates to a device for connection between a roller shaft support and at least one slideway for laterally maintaining a shade body of a closure or sun protection installation, which comprises at least one connection tab adapted to engage, on the one hand, with the slideway and, on the other hand, with the support. This device is characterized in that it comprises an elastic member for locking the tab with the support by cooperation of shapes, this member comprising at least an elastically deformable first tongue equipped with a first beak adapted to clip against a surface of the tab and at least an elastically deformable second tongue equipped with a second beak adapted to clip against a surface of the support, this elastic member being adapted to form a stop against a displacement of the tab with respect to the support in the sense of separation of the tab with respect to the support.
The elastic locking member or clip of the invention avoids an untimely disconnection of the connecting tab with respect to the support and therefore limits the risks of this tab, which is at least partially engaged inside the slideway in question, dropping.
According to advantageous but non-compulsory aspects of the invention, the device incorporates one or more of the following characteristics:
The elastic locking member comprises two substantially parallel first tongues each equipped with a beak adapted to clip against a surface of the tab, these beaks being oriented towards the outside of the tongues with respect to an intermediate space defined therebetween. The elastic clipping of the locking member on the tab may thus occur by an expansion of the tongues which may be compressed due to the geometry of the surfaces of the tab with which they cooperate. The second tongue may be provided to extend, from a zone forming a base common to the first tongues and to the second tongue, at least partially in a direction substantially parallel to the first tongues and outside the intermediate space mentioned above.
Each beak is bordered by a retaining surface substantially perpendicular with respect to a principal direction of the tongue in question and by a surface forming a ramp, inclined with respect to this principal direction. The inclined surface of each beak makes it possible to generate a progressive deformation of the tongue which bears it, during positioning of the elastic locking member.
The tab forms a housing for receiving the locking member, this housing defining at least one surface for cooperation with the beak of the first tongue. The support is advantageously provided with a heel projecting, from an end surface of the support and when the tab is in engagement on the support, towards the interior of the said housing, while this heel defines a surface adapted to cooperate with the beak of the second tongue. The housing may be provided with an opening for access to at least one of the beaks, this opening allowing the insertion of a means for disengaging this beak with respect to a corresponding surface of the support or of the tab. Thanks to this opening, it is possible to release the locking member with respect to the support or to the tab, which allows the installation to be dismantled.
The housing forms a stop adapted to abut against the locking member in place in the housing during a relative movement of the tab and of the support in a sense of separation of the tab and of the support.
The tab is adapted to be brought into engagement with the support by a translation in a direction and a sense defined by the cooperating parts of this support and this tab, this locking member being adapted to oppose, after engagement of the tab on the support, a translation of the tab with respect to the support in the same direction and in opposite sense.
The invention also relates to a mechanism for maneuvering a closure or sun protection installation which comprises a connection device as described hereinabove. Such a mechanism is simpler to install and to adjust than the mechanisms of the prior art.